Student Teachers Relationship Analysis

Freire starts the base for his essay around the student-teacher relationship, and the dysfunction within. He is very right in saying that the process of teaching is akin to the banking system. This often leads to a poor relationship between the pupil and the almighty instructor. However, is this relationship and the teaching method a package deal? The current approach to teaching is the banking concept, which can lead to an oppressive environment, which is caused by the poor student-teacher relationship. I agree that a different teaching method could be more effective, but I do not agree that the current one can never be improved upon or does not ever work. I would like to demonstrate this through a pair of teachers that I had the somewhat …show more content…
While pondering all the teachers that were labeled the best or worst at Brookville, I began to notice some common traits. A teacher’s likeability has a lot to do with the way their teaching is perceived by the students. Often the teacher’s that students define as good at their job are also easily likeable people. Therefore the teacher’s personality affects the level of classroom equality and atmosphere. An unlikeable teacher is usually a no nonsense person who favors the “I’m in charge of everything” mentality. Another important aspect is level of thinking that a student is allowed in the classroom which also influences the opinion of a teacher, but the student has to have the chance to think. There is a significant difference between having to think for yourself in a class, and being so overwhelmed that you can’t think. Freire says that when using the problem-posing method “The students… are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher (pg. 9).” yet this is not only true of the problem-posing method. Just because a teacher presents the students with knowledge does not mean that there can be no discussing in the class as well. Consequently the personality and approach of the teacher is what makes the banking method become an oppressive learning …show more content…
Pete, on the other hand, was easily one of the greatest teachers that I have ever had the pleasure of learning from. Instead of fitting the image of the essay, Mr. Pete is more similar to the statement, “From the outset, her efforts must coincide with those of the students to engage in critical thinking… (pg. 5)” He shared a lot of the same feelings as students when it came to the way education works. He interacts with the students largely through jokes and comedy, which is interesting since he’s a biology teacher. His favorite motto is “you have to make your own fun,” and he lives by this in his classroom. He is able to joke around and bring himself down to the same level as the students by not acting like he’s better than they are. On one occasion, he even went so far as to dress in a homemade Iggy Izaela costume for the entertainment of the students, and himself. These are attributes of him that he incorporates into his teaching to be more effective. He also does not let standardized tests dictate what he teaches. He focuses on what he thinks we need to learn since we are at the point in our lives where we make the most mistakes. When there is some kind of scandal or gossip going around the school, Mr. Pete takes this as an opportunity to teach a life lesson to the students. Sometimes it’s about common sense, others might be about how to treat people, or how the real world works. When a Brookville student hears the words “Mr. Pete’s spiels” they know that they are in